Feel good movies make me feel bad, but this one is hat ke. Not many special effects dishum dishum or romance. Just the world of a different kid like TZP.

The main character has a facial deformity and after being homeschooled for long finally enters a school. The reactions of those around him, the life of those around him etc, are covered in this. Many here may like it even though i liked it.

__________________
This is quite a game, politics. There are no permanent enemies, and no permanent friends,only permanent interests. - Some Firang

William Holden plays Barry Detweiler , who wants to make a film starring an old reclusive actress called Fedora ( Marthe Keller ) because he has a crush on her since his boyhood days when he was spotboy for her film shoot and had the good fortune to see the full glory of her nude breasts from up close while tasked with placing flowers over them as she was shooting in a pool . And she had taken a liking for him and called him to her room and asked him if he found her nude body hot , and had said that he must be a pansy if he did not like her body----meaning she would feel insulted if he did not admire her flesh ; a true narcissist our Fedora , just like a true film star....

Having briefly dated this famous movie star a long time ago and been on long drives in her car with her , Barry just can't get her out of his mind . And here he now , trying to meet her decades later on an island where she has mysteriously disappeared after leaving films and joining them again . And he closes onto the villa where Fedora lives , only to find out that it is heavily guarded by tough looking humans and even tougher dogs .

But Barry is nothing if not persistent , and he soon makes contact with her . But she tells him that she is being held captive by a countess and her men . When Barry tries to renew the contact he is beaten and left unconscious by one of Fedora's overseers . When he wakes up , he finds out that she is dead having committed suicide .

As he comes to pay his last respects to her body , Barry accuses the countess and her husband of having conspired to kill Fedora . And the countess is then forced to blurt out the jaw dropping truth . That Fedora was actually she herself and she was even more narcissistic than Barry thought . That in order to satisfy her narcissism she used to take regular treatments from her doctor that one day had the opposite effect of disfiguring her . And she had gone into hiding . But when she got news that the academy award had been awarded to her , she had prepared her daughter to receive the award impersonating her . And the impersonation was so good that the daughter soon was working in films as Fedora , impersonating her of course .

But when the daughter fell in love like all young women do , she wanted to reveal the secret to the young man she loved . That she was not older than him as he thought and that they could be together without any age gap between them . But the idea of the revelation of this secret exploded the vanity of the older real Fedora like a poisonous snake being disturbed , and she did the most cruel and vile thing that a woman could do---held her own child drugged and captive .

Seeing the film I was disgusted with these filmy people and their horrible ego and their self absorption . More so because such people actually exist in the film industry and are not fiction . The film evokes Hollywood of the forties---extravagant sets and movies and even more extravagant egos .

And yet people are willing to pamper and pander to these extravagant egos . For Barry agrees to keep the secret of the countess , as Fedora is called in her new avtar . And why ? For old times sake of course....to remember with happiness the time he had briefly dated this great star .

The film is suspenseful in the beginning and the explanation of the suspense is even more shocking than we thought . In that sense the film exceeds our expectations . Acting and photography is okay but colours are not great . Background music is okay too .

I saw this 40 year old movie on VCD at home on a lazy sunday --- instead of going to the cinema hall....err , multiplex---since no really good movie seems to be in the cinemas....err multiplexes .

The movie is based on the classic novel of the same name by Frederick Forsythe ; and mind you , the novel is one of the great thriller novels of all time . The movie is of course an abridged version of the novel .

The plot is placed ten years earlier than the movie , and the year is 1962---exactly fifty years ago .

That year Algeria was liberated from French colonial rule . To give some of the history behind the plot , the French didnt leave Algeria without a fight . In fact it was a bloody fight . When the Algerians revolted against the French , the French used brutal torture to quell the rebellion in what was known as the battle of Algiers ( search google for that ). But this aroused international sympathy for the Algerian cause and when world war hero Charles De Gaulle was elected as president of France he announced that he was going to give independence to Algeria .

But their was one impediment to this---the French who had settled in Algeria who formed a hefty 10 percent of Algeria's population and who believed in the slogan Algeria Francaise , meaning Algeria is France....
And they resolved to kill De Gaulle , the president who dared to think of giving freedom to Algeria .

After numerous attempts to kill De Gaulle ( and here the movie begins ) , they decided to hire a contract killer---a man who for a hefty sum of money would kill Charles De Gaulle......

......And since its a Frederick Forsythe novel , but naturally its an englishman who is chosen......

......And what an englishman......
All blond and blue eyed and lean and fit ---one wonders why he chose to be a contract killer and not an actor or model.....oh I forgot that he IS an actor just playing the role of a contract killer for a movie

....And he is a true professional.....a man on a mission.....
And when he takes up a job he acts like a man possessed......

But the moolah he demands is so much that the organisation that has hired him has to robs banks and jewellery stores and other places to get the required money---thus alerting the French govt to the fact that they are planning something big....
.....And what could be more big in this political atmosphere that the assassination of De Gaulle......
So the govt begins its hunt for the potential killer.....

But thats hardly going to deter our man on a mission---who uses the code name JACKAL.....

He uses various tricks to get multiple passports including stealing the passport of one man in broad daylight , and then kills the man who made the passports for him for daring to blackmail him---no one blackmails the jackal without incurring his wrath ( mind it !! )

And the jackal gets a telescopic gun made for him that can fit in the pipe of a car or the walking stick of a handicapped person....and finetunes it himself by spending hours in practice in the jungle.....

And he is a master of changing his disguise and his appearance like a chameleon would do.....

And using these disguises he crosses borders of nations with ease fooling guards and border security.....

.....And when the police recognise his car he just changes its colour by spraypainting it himself in the woods on his way to Paris......

Both women and gay men swoon on his chiselled features....
But the jackal has not come for fun and games and he has to kill them all to cover his tracks---leaving a pile of dead bodies behind him along the way.....

One word about the killings though---the violence is only hinted at and aficionados of slambang action may pause to frown....there are no brutal fights or bloodcurdling screams in the movie.....the action is all cerebral and the movie is a cerebral thriller.....

But the jackal has not contended for one man---a French police officer who hides a razorsharp brain behind his affable nature ; and who is on his tracks , sometimes missing to catch the jackal by inches....

The jackal is saved in these situations because the organisation he works for has a mole among the very persons the police officer reports to---and who informs the jackal of the police's every move.....

So the game of cat and mouse continues....

But the big question is---will the jackal succeed in his mission , or will the police be able to stop him ?

That can be answered only on liberation day , when De Gaulle will come to witness a parade in the capital city .

And only if the jackal manages to kill the president on the day will that day be known as the day of the jackal.....

So will it be known as that ??

Watch the movie for that.....
I found it a worthy watch......

rating---3 and a half stars .

The dogs of war---

The tin-pot republic of Zangaro---typical specimen of the hellhole that is Africa.....

Its ruled by a typically brutal dictator called Simba....oh actually it is Zimba....

But Zimba Simba who cares......they are all the same in the banana republics of Africa arent they.....

He's come to power by killing all his enemies , and to make sure no one entertains any future thought of enemity to him , he kills them before they have such thoughts.....

And he lives lavishly with his harem in the midst of his garrisoning troops in their barracks while his country is awash in a sea of crime and injustice.....

Into this godforsaken place comes our hero---posing as a wildlife photographer.....

He's instantly suspected for what he is---for who would come to this hellish place taking photographs if he is not sent by Zimba's enemies for taking measure of Zimba's power and the potential of destroying it.....

......And so he is packed off to jail where amidst myriad tortures , he meets the leader of the democratic movement of Zangaro who is cooling his heels in jail for the past 4 years for preaching democracy.....

But our hero's a white man---a citizen of the United States , and that country wont take the death of its countryman so lightly.....

So he cant be killed and has to be sent home.....

A home where the people who have sent him are waiting for his report on the situation in Zangaro......

For them he is just a mercenary , a dog of war......

.....And such dogs are expendible.......

But before such dogs are expended they have their uses.....

And his use to his handlers is to assemble a pack of dogs like himself and start a revolution in that little corner of Africa called zangaro.....

.....And their plan is to prop up a suitably black president who allows them to loot the mineral resources of his country and make money.....

But our dog is a dog with a mind of his own.....

And above all he's a good dog.....

He's not got long to live due to a fatal disease, and so has no use for the money his handlers are offering him.....

And at the end of his life he wants to do something good for humanity.....

But firstly , does he succeed in bringing revolution to Zangaro ??

Happily he does , and the director torches alight Frederick Forsythe's dull novel by moving away from the script and showing some real action unlike the novel which concentrated only on the planning of the coup and disappointingly stopped before some fighting broke out.....

As President Zimba's palace is swept by a hailstorm of firepower and the invaders fire grenades , rockets and bullets into the garrison protecting Zimba , the question is not whether Zimba will go but in how short a time will Zimba's power collapse.....

But the bigger question is---what is our hero's plan to put idealism in action in Zangaro ??

A friend who saw Odessa file remarked that it was not a patch on the novel. I had a similar feeling when i saw Day of the Jackal on Star movies sometime in the 90s. Not to demean the movie, but it is tough to capture all the details from the novel in the movie.
Dogs of war was a great novel. I didnt know there was a movie on it.

I read those from an indo german library in the small PSU town i lived in early 90s.

__________________
This is quite a game, politics. There are no permanent enemies, and no permanent friends,only permanent interests. - Some Firang

There is an off beat Gult movie you could try catching on. It showed on 'Tollywood box office' part of YuppTV.

It is 'Arjun Reddy'. It is about a rebellious surgeon who is into drugs and is a sex addict. root cause seems to be an unsuccessful love affair. It landed into controversies for showing pre marital sex and many kissing scenes, which are not common in Gult movies, besides supposedly encouraging drugs.

__________________
This is quite a game, politics. There are no permanent enemies, and no permanent friends,only permanent interests. - Some Firang

I'm gonna give it a try although most of the good movies I've already seen or they are on netflix too.. but anyways, may be I find 1 or 2 I haven't watched yet.

There is one which you may not like- PK I am not on this yuppflix but with Yupp TV subscription, I get to see some of these movies. One which not many may like but I found timepass is mastizaade. All sexual innuendos.

__________________
This is quite a game, politics. There are no permanent enemies, and no permanent friends,only permanent interests. - Some Firang

There is one which you may not like- PK I am not on this yuppflix but with Yupp TV subscription, I get to see some of these movies. One which not many may like but I found timepass is mastizaade. All sexual innuendos.

The casting feature on yuppflix (to chromecast) is working great as opposed to yupp tv casting which was pathetic.

Overall it’s pretty good for 4 bucks a month. But then you run out of watchable movies soon.. and I’m a verry picky movie watcher.

The Indian star system of Bollywood in the 1970s---full of tyranny of the top film stars . Mahendar Kumar ( played by Suresh Oberoi ) plays just such a film star . He arrives late for shootings keeping his producers and directors waiting even though their precious money is on the line . Sometimes when he does not have the mood he simply skips the shooting wasting the time resources and energy that has been spent creating the movie set . Reason---he is sleeping with some woman . Producers literally have to fall at his feet and beg him to resume shooting . He forces changes in the dialogues of his films to favour himself and sometimes changes entire scenes to suit his star status . No one dare reproach him for his misbehaviour for he is the darling of the masses ; the man for whom people come to watch films .

At home Mahendar's wife Kalpana ( played by Deepti Naval ) is subject to a different kind of tyranny . She has to suffer neglect as Mahendar is away for shooting leaving her alone at home . But many times his keeping away from home for shootings is nothing but an excuse for sleeping with other women . Not that he takes much care to hide his affairs . Women lie half naked on his lap in parties in front of Kalpana and make a beeline for sleeping with him because they want roles in films through his recommendations .

Kalpana who has married him thinking how lucky she is to marry this great film star remembers with regret the carefree days of her youth where she used to frolick with her friends before marriage . She feels humiliated by Mahendar's open dalliances with other women in front of her eyes while she has to play dutiful wife dancing on his tune . But this is India in the seventies and women have to live lives hidebound by tradition . In real life too wives of film stars like Raj Kapoor and Dharmendra had to live long suffering lives where they were not allowed any freedoms while their husbands opening cavorted with other women .

One day on a shoot in London Mahendar as usual neglects Kalpana for shootings and also for other women and the thoroughly bored Kalpana is intrigued by the paintings of an Indian street painter ( played by Pradeep Verma ) called Vimal . Vimal sees her interest and asks her to pose for his painting . But rains pour in and he offers Kalpana a ride in his car . As they strike up a conversation they both realise that their common interest is painting . Kalpana had to give up painting after marriage as part of the sacrifices an Indian film star's wife had to do for her husband's household but she still dreams of painting . Vimal invites Kalpana to the painting class he learns painting at and she agrees . Her husband Mahendar is so distracted by other women that he goes for film shooting in Switzerland with his current girlfriend leaving her behind alone .

At the painting class the two are soon attracted to one another and are going out for outings in gardens . One day Kalpana visits Vimal's house and sees a nude painting of herself . She asks him if he dreams of her like that and the inevitable happens---the two bodies are drawn to each other for making love . But back at home Kalpana is riven by guilt . She after all is not a western woman but an Indian woman kept in chains of tradition and extramarital sex is taboo for women like her . She decides to break off with Vimal that very night and phones Mahendar to tell him that she wants to stay with him in Switzerland . But in the dead of the night the phone is picked up by his girlfriend . It is obvious that they are sleeping together . Sick of Mahender's philandering Kalpana decides to continue with Vimal .

However Mahendar's career receives a further boost as he gets a film in Hollywood . Overjoyed by this news Kalpana decides to give the marriage another chance and decides to accompany Mahendar to Hollywood . But Mahendar throws cold shower over her plans by refusing to take her with him . Angered by this Kalpana gets ever closer to Vimal and dreams of making love with him when her husband is making love to her . She compares the two and finds Vimal to be caring attentive and gentle to her . While the wives of real life film stars like Dharmendra and Raj Kapoor stayed with their husbands for their money Kalpana is not swayed by such considerations because she is made of sterner stuff . She wants a man who is totally for herself and Vimal is not a philanderer like her husband .

But a woman carrying an extramarital affair would have been castigated by the backward Indian society in the seventies and this fact soon weighs on Kalpana . Mahendar as a man was free to carry on his dalliances with many women but Kalpana as a woman was not free to have a single affair . She decides to cut off Vimal....but he has grown too emotionally attached to her . He asks her to meet him just one more time . Actually Mahendar wants Kalpana to come to Bombay because the members of the press are going to interview him there and he wants Kalpana by his side just for photo ops and to present the perfect picture of him as a family man . But Kalpana relents for the sake of Vimal and postpones her flight to Bombay . And she goes to meet Vimal just one last time , to say goodbye . Vimal cries in her lap like a baby and implores her to stay with him for he needs her more than her husband needs her .

Torn between the two men Kalpana is at a crossroads of life . All of a sudden things are made easier for her by a phone call from Mahendar . He is freaking mad that Kalpana had not arrived in Bombay on the day he was to be interviewed by the press and could not give fake photo ops as the perfect family man . And for this perfidy Mahendar howls like mad dog on Kalpana on phone . Thoroughly humiliated by the shouting Kalpana finally does what is right . She tells Mahendar in no uncertain terms that she is leaving him and his life for Vimal .

As Kalpana packed her belongings and went to sit beside Vimal she still was wondering whether she had done right....or so said Vinod Pande the director of the film . But that has never stopped aficionados of true romance like myself and many others from celebrating her liberation....

Background music and songs are most perfect in the film , reflecting the mood of every moment in the movie . Colours and photography are very decent . Acting is good by both Suresh Oberoi and Deepti Naval as star husband and star wife . But Pradeep Verma brings real vulnerability to his role as lover ; he seems so gentle that any woman would find it hard to break his heart .